Obama: Republicans 'holding the whole country hostage'

CLAYCOMO, Mo. (AP) — President Barack Obama says the United States isn't "some banana republic" or a "deadbeat nation." He told workers at a Missouri auto plant, "We don't run out on our tab."

Obama says instead of focusing on defunding his health care law, Republicans should pass a spending plan and raise the nation's borrowing limit to avoid a first-ever default on the nation's debt. He says they're "holding the whole country hostage."

Funding for the government is set to run out at the end of September, and the government will reach the limits of its borrowing authority a few weeks later. And Obama is locked in a stalemate with lawmakers, with less than two weeks until the start of the new budget year.

The Republican-led House today passed a bill that would keep the government running -- but it's attached to a provision that would gut funding for Obama's health care law. That provision is certain to die in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Obama says he will veto the spending measure if that doesn't happen.

After today's House vote, Speaker John Boehner (BAY'-nur) said the message for the Senate is that Americans don't want a government shutdown, and that they don't want the health care overhaul.

But Obama today accused Republicans of threatening to "blow the whole thing up" because they couldn't get their way on health care.

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209-a-12-(President Barack Obama, speaking to employees of Ford's Kansas City Stamping Plant)-"paychecks on time"-President Obama says a government shutdown would not be total, but it would be damaging. (20 Sep 2013)

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210-a-14-(President Barack Obama, speaking to employees of Ford's Kansas City Stamping Plant)-"are fighting for"-President Obama says House Republicans are holding Uncle Sam's finances hostage to the destruction of a law that's already been immensely beneficial to American families. (20 Sep 2013)

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APPHOTO MOOW102: President Barack Obama looks at his watch while speaking at the Ford Stamping Plant in Liberty, Mo., Friday, Sept. 20, 2013. Obama traveled to the Kansas City area to visit the Ford automotive plant to highlight the progress in the economy since the 2008 financial crisis. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner) (20 Sep 2013)

APPHOTO DCSA109: Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Republican members of the House of Representatives rally after passing a bill that would prevent a government shutdown while crippling the health care law that was the signature accomplishment of President Barack Obama's first term, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Sept. 20, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (20 Sep 2013)